Dr. Heidi L. Dempsey

Professor, Psi Chi and Psychology Club Advisor
100 Ayers Hall
hdempsey@jsu.edu

I am always seeking undergraduate students who wish to participate in research. Most of my current studies look at (1) emotion assessment (guilt, shame, forgiveness, regret, and gratitude), (2) impulsivity and self control in an educational setting (delay and effort discounting of grades), or (3) moral foundations and political ideology. I generally supervise students who want to go to graduate school in social, personality, clinical, or counseling psychology. Visit my office in 100 Ayers Hall or email me if you are interested in obtaining research experience (opportunities available for those wish to receive course credit or just volunteer their time).

Visit Dr. Dempsey's Home Page

Heidi Dempsey

Courses Taught

  • Principles of Psychology (PSY 201)
  • Honors Principles of Psychology (PSY 202)
  • Orientation to Psychology (PSY 205)
  • Personality & Individual Differences (PSY 336)
  • Social Psychology (PSY 350)
  • Human Sexuality (PSY 352)
  • Topics in Social Psychology (PSY 411)
  • Cultural Psychology (PSY 433)
  • Psychology Seminar (PSY 447)
  • History and Systems of Psychology (PSY 450/450G)
  • Instructional Practicum (PSY 460)
  • Individual Research (PSY 490; 491)
  • Honors Thesis (PSY 498, 499)

Academic/Research Interests

  • Broadly:  Social psychology and personality
  • Narrowly:  impulsivity and self-control (delayed and effort discounting) in education; guilt and shame assessment; forgiveness, gratitude, and regret; moral foundations and political ideology; computer-aided learning; college student procrastination, impulsivity, and adjustment as predictors of GPA and retention; scholarship of teaching and learning;

Education

Sample Recent Publications

  • Mackey, C., & Dempsey, H. L. (2018). Personality traits, political ideology, and candidate preference in the Deep South. Modern Psychological Studies, 23(2), Article 7.
  • Dempsey, H. L. (2017). A comparison of the social-adaptive perspective and functionalist perspective on guilt and shame. Behavioral Sciences, 7, 83. doi:10.3390/bs7040083
  • Dempsey, H. L., & Mann, A. (2017). Guilt, shame, sympathy, and prosocial behavior. Journal of Articles in Support of the Null Hypothesis, 14(1), 59-68.
  • Ferguson, T. J. & Dempsey, H. L. (2010). Reconciling interpersonal versus responsibility based models of guilt. In W. Koops, D. Brugman, T. J. Ferguson, & A. F. Sanders (Eds.) The development and structure of conscience (pp. 171-206). New York: Psychology Press.

Sample Recent Conference Presentations

  • Dempsey, H. L. (2019, March). Predictors of college student GPA and retention. Paper to be presented to the 65th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association, Jacksonville, FL. *Nominated for Outstanding Professional Paper Award.
  • Dempsey, H. L. & Howell, C. (2019, March). Gratitude, empathy, happiness, and the big five personality traits. Poster to be presented at the 65th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association, Jacksonville, FL.
  • Galloway, H., Cangialosi, B., & Dempsey, H. L. (2019, March). Does shame-proneness predict responses to a semi-projective measure? Poster to be presented at the 65th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association, Jacksonville, FL.
  • Cangialosi, B. & Dempsey, H. L. (2019, March). Gender and age differences in procrastination. Poster to be presented at the 65th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association, Jacksonville, FL.
  • Howell, C. & Dempsey, H. L. (2019, March). Gratitude and the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. Poster to be presented at the 65th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association, Jacksonville, FL.
  • Dempsey, H. L., & Mackey, C. (2018, March). Moral foundations and political ideology in the Deep South. Paper presented at the 64th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association, Charleston, SC.
  • Cangialosi, B., Galloway, H., Chunn, M., & Dempsey, H. L. (2018, March). Creating a codebook for the Affective Sentence Completion Test. Poster presented at the 64th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association, Charleston, SC
  • Rock, E., Usrey, L., & Dempsey, H. L. (2018, March). Effort discounting of math and English examinations, grades, and retention. Poster presented at the 64th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association, Charleston, SC.
  • Coleman, P., & Dempsey, H. L. (2017, March). Why do students go home on the weekend? Poster presented at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association, Atlanta, GA.
  • Lowe, J., Bearden, J., Crabtree, C., & Dempsey, H. L. (2017, March). Replicating Tversky and Kahneman’s (1981) study on framing of decisions. Poster presented at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association, Atlanta, GA.
  • Dempsey, H. L., Morring, K., Peek, Z., Wertz, B., Langner, B., & Dempsey, D. (2016, April). Predictors of student retention: Temporal and effort discounting. Poster presented at the 62nd Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association, New Orleans, LA.

Sample Course Materials

  • Dempsey, H. L. (2015). Study Questions for History of Psychology for use with B. Alexander and C. Shelton’s A History of Psychology in Western Civilization. Available from the author.
  • Dempsey, H. L. (2014). Cultural Psychology Study Questions for use with S. Heine’s Cultural Psychology textbook. Available from the author.
  • Dempsey, H. L. (2014) Study Questions for History of Psychology for use with E. P. Kardas’s History of Psychology: The Making of a Science. Available from the author.
  • Dempsey, H. L. (2012). Study Questions for Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Eagleman. Available from the author.
  • Dempsey, H. L. (2012). Interteaching Questions created for use with F. J. Gravetter & L. B. Forzano’s Research Methods for the Behavioral Sciences (4th ed.). Available from the author.